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Deal with it: Frustrating as it may be, Celtics' inaction at trade deadline understandable

In the end, it was all noise, an empty Twitter orgy with no payoff. Chandler Parsons. Jeremy Lin. Lottery-protected picks. Kevin Love. Kyle Lowry. Gordon Hayward. Cap relief, expiring contracts. We heard and read and wanted to only believe all the rumors, because trades are a good time, trades get us through the endless nothingness that is February, because trades bring hope.

Danny Ainge elected to punt on hope and stick us with 27 more games of this. The 2013-14 Celtics are going to prove to be terrible, of course, we already know that, just not quite terrible enough. They are on pace to win 29 games, which probably will be the fifth- or sixth-worst record in the league. Not a masterpiece of tanking, but not a disaster, either -- I'm guessing Ainge would have signed for the fifth pick in this draft before the season started.

Here's why I should never be a general manager of any franchise (one of the many reasons, actually, writes the man who would have picked Ryan Leaf over Peyton Manning and Rick Mirer over Drew Bledsoe) -- I would have made three trades on Thursday just to make three trades. A manic interventionist just because. It's OK to be dreadful when there is reason to be, but the Celtics are dreadful and relentlessly boring in the process. At some point over the last couple of months this team has crossed over to unwatchable, and I'd have swapped out half the roster just to watch different players lose night after night. But I'm irrational about this stuff (and also have had my fill of Gerald Wallace).

Ainge, alas, is not. He's paid a lot of money not to be. So Trader Danny sticks with Jeff Green and Brandon Bass and Kris Humphries' expiring contract and Wallace and we just have to live with it for now. Oh, and Rajon Rondo is still here to be loved by some and hated by others, and never does one switch sides.

Here's what it really, really comes down to: Danny Ainge has earned your trust. Are there misses on his resume? Sure. But do we put more checks on the hit list? Yup. And what he has done over the last year -- turning a coach who didn't want to be in Boston and two players on the 17th hole into four first-round picks -- is past any reasonable expectation. It's comforting for fans to know the rebuilding process isn't in the hands of a dope. This isn't a "cross your fingers and hope for the first pick" situation, there is (here it is again) hope even if this year isn't perfect, this is not Tim Duncan or bust.

Ainge has potentially 10 first-round picks over the next five seasons and only $19.3 million on the books in 2015; there is a staggering amount of possible flexibility with this team. It's easy to get lost in the tall grass of right now -- trade deadlines will do that -- but the solution might be next season. Think about it: If Ainge can hit on the right guy in this draft and the team struggles again next year, the chance of another top-five pick is very real. That's how it works, building through the draft and adding role players. If you are a city that isn't traditionally catnip for free agents, the draft is all you've got (see Pacers and Thunder).

Kevin Love would be swell. He's going to average 24-14 for the next decade and win an MVP or two and end up in the Hall of Fame. But he's not coming to Boston. There will be no all-timer coming from Minnesota to turn things around, that happens once in a franchise history if things go incredibly well.

This will be an inside job back to 60 wins if it gets done. And it's not an overnight deal, we all know that. And that's why it didn't matter if Ainge traded Bass or Humphries for some second-round pick. I'm all for losing games just to lose games, but this team is just as capable of going 6-21 the rest of the way with those two around.

I'd trade Jeff Green for 30 cents on the dollar, but that's where we arrive at the "I shouldn't be a GM" thing again. We all know Green's set list -- 32 points on a Wednesday and 2-of-11 with six turnovers on a Friday. He's played about 500 NBA games and will be 28 in August, this is going to be Jeff Green for the rest of his career, alternately thrilling and infuriating. Maybe Ainge looks at him as a sixth or seventh man on a 55-win team three years from now and wants to keep him around. Or maybe he shopped him around and didn't like any of the offers and will resume trying to move him in the offseason. Again, does Jeff Green over 27 games make the difference between the second- and fifth-worst record in the league? Probably not.

Rajon Rondo's value is low right now, which is one reason I felt confident Ainge wasn't going to move him. We'll see if Ainge means what he has said and keeps Rondo for the long term (and I don't think he's a max-contract player), but this is too valuable a player and chip to burn over a 2.5 percent difference (fifth- and sixth-worst record) in odds of getting the first pick in a draft. Three o'clock on Thursday was the deadline for this year, Ainge has another 365 days to figure out what to do with Rondo. To have traded him at this point would have been a disservice to the rebuild.

No deals from Trader Danny wasn't sexy and means 27 more games of basketball hell, but it was the right thing to do. Now please leave me alone as I transition from the Trade Machine to the Lottery Mock Draft Machine.

Flannery joins Mut to break down the Isaiah Thomas trade to Boston and what it means for the Celtics this season and in the future. Paul also chats with Mut about the other deals that happened at the NBA's trading deadline

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